Tottenham mascot's cheeky request to Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk speaks volumes
Tottenham's injury crisis is not lost on one of their young mascots, who made a proposition to Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk before Wednesday night's Carabao Cup semi-final
by Felix Keith · The MirrorVirgil van Dijk received a contract offer from an unlikely source in the build-up to Liverpool’s Carabao Cup match against Tottenham on Wednesday night.
Liverpool travelled to north London for the first leg of their semi-final against Spurs, hoping to take a significant step towards the first final of the season. Arne Slot ’s side arrived in a confident mood to take on an opposition riddled with injuries.
Spurs’ injury crisis is so severe that they gave a debut to Antonin Kinsky just three days after he arrived in a £12.5million transfer from Slavia Prague. Things are particularly bad in central defence for Ange Postecoglou, who is without Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Ben Davies.
The situation is not lost on Tottenham’s mascots, with one of them pleading Van Dijk to switch sides before kick-off. Footage from Sky Sports showed the mascots lined up in the tunnel, awaiting their moment to walk out with the Tottenham team.
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But the group were excited to catch a glimpse of Liverpool’s captain before then – and couldn’t help but chance their arm. After spotting the towering figure walking towards them, one child shouted: “Van Dijk, come to Tottenham! We've not got any good defenders at the moment!”
Van Dijk smiled and took it in his stride, sharing some quick high-fives with the Spurs mascots, but he didn’t respond to the request. The plea may have come slightly too late, given Van Dijk is poised to sign a new two-year contract with Liverpool this month to put to rest speculation over his future.
Sky Sports presenter Mark Chapman found the exchange particularly amusing, saying: “The mascots being very honest to the Liverpool players there! They are the best value mascots in the league at Tottenham. They always entertain – every single week. I don’t know if Ange Postecoglou heard the mascots, but let’s hear from him.”
Postecoglou has been very vocal about the injury crisis his team is currently going through, with 11 players unavailable for the Liverpool clash. The situation got worse just minutes into the match when midfielder Rodrigo Bentacur had to be stretchered off after falling awkwardly.
Tottenham are in the market for more additions this month, with a centre-back the top priority now Kinsky has arrived to play in goal, with Guglielmo Vicario and Fraser Forster out. "Look, we are still trying to help the squad and help the players," Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference.
"We are still down significant numbers. We will have roughly 10 first team players missing tomorrow. That’s not easy so we are still looking to try to help the playing group. The club is working hard in a number of areas."
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